


New Normal

by iiKiwiliciousii



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ed needs a hug, Family, Fluff, Foster Care, Gen, High School, Other, Parental Roy, Parental Roy Mustang, Parental Royed - Freeform, Roy being a dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28525371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iiKiwiliciousii/pseuds/iiKiwiliciousii
Summary: Never in a million years did Edward expect to be living under the same roof as his teacher. There was no protocol for this.OREd and Roy learn how to be a family.
Relationships: Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric, Edward Elric & Riza Hawkeye, Edward Elric & Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye/Roy Mustang
Comments: 11
Kudos: 179





	New Normal

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [and then it wasn't](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14630313) by [GentleTouchGinger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GentleTouchGinger/pseuds/GentleTouchGinger). 



> This was inspired by GentleTouchGinger's story, "and then it wasn't". I loved that whole story, and you should definitely read that one before reading this one, only because this story is set in their universe. I hope you enjoy it, and that the characters are in character!

Edward Elric lay on the bottom bunk of his bed. The bed that he now shared with his brother. His brother, who he hadn’t lived with in 3 years. He still couldn’t believe it. Only a few days before, Ed was stuck in a home with multiple other children and abusive foster parents, and now he was living with his teacher. Ed sighed and sat up, raking his fingers through his hair. His phone read 3:38 AM. He could hear Al’s snores above him, could practically feel it. Ed was grateful to Mustang, but he couldn’t help but feel a little weird. How was this going to work? How long would Mustang and his wife put up with them? 

Giving up on trying to sleep, Ed quietly walked to the kitchen, using the wall for balance. This kitchen was unfamiliar to him too. He didn’t know where the glasses were. Ed bit his lip as he considered if it was worth it to look for the cups. He didn’t want to make any noise. 

“Couldn’t sleep?” The lights flicked on and Ed flinched.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.” Ed mumbled out of habit, keeping his head down.

“You didn’t wake me.” Roy assured him. “The cups are in the cabinet to your left.”

Ed nodded, still not making eye contact. Thankfully, Roy didn’t mention it, and just sat down in the nearest chair. The next few seconds were silent, aside from the running water. Ed felt too awkward to hobble over and sit down, so he just leaned against the counter and drank some water. Roy looked deep in thought as he stared blankly in front of him, but Ed didn’t mind, as long as he didn’t have to talk. 

This was really, really weird. He would never have imagined that he would ever end up sleeping under the same roof as Roy Mustang. He barely knew the man! Until a few days ago, Ed didn’t even know that Mustang was married. Hell, Roy probably didn’t even know that he had a brother until a few days ago. How was he supposed to act? What was he supposed to say, other than thank you? What was the relationship now? Were they friends? Were they still teacher and student? Or, were they foster parent and foster child? That last one felt too weird. There was no way that Roy felt that way. 

Ed reminded himself that this was only temporary. There was no way that Roy actually wanted Ed and Al in his life long term. He was still relatively young, and married, and probably not ready for the responsibility of children. Especially children like him. But if it wasn’t long term, why did Roy get a bunk bed for him and Al? Why did he go through all this trouble? 

“I can hear you overthinking from here.” Roy said, bringing Ed back to the present. 

“Sorry.” 

“You don’t have to apologize for everything, you know.” he said softly.

“Sorry.” Ed said again, cursing his brain for being so stupid. Roy huffed a laugh and sighed. 

“Do you need anything for school? I have lots of extra stuff, being a teacher and all.”

Ed did need another notebook. But he didn’t want to ask for that. 

“No.” Was all he said. Roy nodded and chewed his lip.

“Ok. Good night then.” 

Ed held his breath until he heard the bedroom door close. He washed his cup as quietly as he could and snuck back to his room. He decided that he would just stay in there from now on.

The next morning, there were two backpacks next to his bed, both filled with school supplies. New pencils, notebooks, pencil cases, erasers, pens and so on. 

“Nice!” Al exclaimed as he grabbed the bag and started looking through.

“Brother, look! My pencil case has a cat on it!” Al laughed. Ed smiled at his brother's excitement. Roy didn’t mention anything at breakfast, and Ed was grateful. 

________________________________________________________________

Ed was half asleep in history when something hit the back of his head. He looked behind him where Noah was looking at him, and gesturing at the floor with his eyes. Rolling his eyes, Ed picked up the crumpled note. He wasn’t really friends with Noah or anything, but they talked sometimes. Honestly, Ed wasn’t really friends with anyone. 

Why talk to people when he could be sleeping, texting Al, or finishing homework? But there were some people who tried to be his friend really hard. They would always try to talk to him, and sit next to him, and Ed didn’t really care that much. Noah was one of those people.

“Read your note after class Elric.” Was all the teacher said, and some students snickered. Ed shook his head and shoved the note in his new backpack. He could feel Noah’s eyes on him, but just ignored it. It could wait until after class. Finally, after a painfully long hour, the bell rang and the students rushed through the door. Ed barely made it two steps out of the class when Noah grabbed his shoulder.

“Hey, Ed!” Noah called, trying to keep up with him. Ed sighed and stopped for him.

“What is it? I gotta get to my next class.” 

“Yea, with Mustang right?”

“...Yea.” 

Noah leaned in and looked around to see if anyone was listening, which of course, no one was.    
“Is it true?” He asked. Ed raised an eyebrow.

“Is what true?” Ed asked and Noah rolled his eyes.

“You know…. Is it true that Mustang like, adopted you or whatever?” 

Ed’s eyes widened. Is that what was going around?

“What? Where’d you hear that?” He asked.

“Well like, Aaron is in your class with Mustang, and he said that he saw you talking to him after class twice. And then, the other day, Mustang had a phone call and left the room, and you just followed him. Then you disappeared for the rest of the day! Everyone was talking about it!” 

Damm it. What was Ed supposed to say? No one else really knew his home situation, and he didn’t want to tell people that he was living with Mustang, especially if he didn’t know if it was for long. Plus, he didn’t know what Roy was saying. Did Roy want people knowing? More confusion. 

“Dude, no, Mustang didn’t adopt me. He’s just helping me with university stuff.” That wasn’t entirely a lie. 

“What about the phone call, and how you left for the rest of the day?”

“I don’t know what his phone call was about, but I left cause of a doctors appointment. For my leg and all.” Ed lied. Noah gave him a look, clearly seeing through his BS, but just shook his head and smiled.

“Alright, if you say so man. See you in gym?” 

“Yea, see you then.” Ed nodded. Noah waved as he ran off to his class, and Ed sighed in relief. Then the bell rang, and Ed realised that he was late. For Mustang’s classes, of all classes. 

Ed stopped in front of the door for a moment, taking a few deep breaths. He tried to make himself look calm. If there were already rumors going around that Mustang adopted him, he didn’t want to bring any more attention to himself. Ed opened the door silently, just enough that he could slip though. He made the mistake of meeting Roy’s eyes, which were looking at him with questions and concern. Roy was already up front, clearly about to start speaking. Ed glanced away from Roy’s eyes instantly and hurried to his desk. He could feel everyone’s eyes on him, could hear their whispering. Worse, Ed could feel the heat rising in his face. Ed sat down and Roy cleared his throat, before he started speaking again. Ed wasn’t even listening. He just put his hood up and slumped in his seat. It was times like this that Ed wished he could sit in the back, but his stupid prosthetic leg forced him to sit in the front of the room. He could feel everyone’s eyes on him.

Ed wondered if Roy had heard the rumours too. If he did, what did he think of them? Eventually, the bell rang, and Ed realized that he hadn’t heard a single word of the lesson. Still, Ed quickly grabbed his bag and rushed for the door, not giving Mustang a chance to stop him. 

The rest of the day was the same. People whispering as he walked by, ‘friends’ asking him about the rumours. He did his best to avoid eye contact with everyone. The problem arose when the last bell of the day rang, and Ed realized that Roy was his ride home. No one saw him arrive with him in the morning because they got there early, but now, he had no excuse to avoid Roy. Ed was putting his stuff away in his locked when someone tapped him on the shoulder. From the sudden silence around him, Ed already knew who it was. He turned around, and nodded at Roy, who looked as awkward as he felt, clearly flustered by the sudden silence around him.

“Um, I don’t usually leave for another hour, but bus number four stops near my place if you wanted to leave now.” Mustang said. More whispering around him. Ed wished he could hide the redness on his face.

“I’ll just wait.” Ed stammered, and Roy nodded quickly before walking away. Ed slammed his locker shut and started walking. He didn’t even know where, but he had to walk before someone stopped him and asked questions. He could hear bits and pieces of the whispers around him.

“-I told you!”   
“-can’t beli-”

“-red his face-”

“-Mustang of all peo-”

Ed didn’t hear any more before he bumped into someone.

“Sorry!” He apologized, not bothering to look up.   
“Ah, Edward! Just the person I wanted to see!” Came the warm voice of Mrs. Hughes.

“Come with me! I wanted to talk to you.” She said, gently guiding Ed into her office.

“There we go, much better.” Mrs. Hughes said after closing the door. She turned and smiled at Ed.

“You can go ahead and put your bag down. Roy won’t be done for a little while so you can relax here if you want.” Mrs. Hughes explained, sitting down at her desk. Ed realized what she was doing, and smiled gratefully. He sat down on her couch and pulled out his phone to text Al.

_______________________________________________________________

The car ride was silent for most of the ride. Ed leaned against the door and tried to avoid any eye contact. 

“I’m sorry.” Roy said eventually. Ed snapped his head towards him.

“I didn’t think that people would be talking about us or anything. It didn’t occur to me.” Roy started. He paused, waiting to see if Ed would say anything.

“Are you okay?” He asked. Ed laughed at the question. 

“Yea, I’m okay.” He said. Roy didn’t say anything for a few minutes. 

“Are you embarrassed?”

Ed looked at Roy, who looked a little embarrassed himself.

“Are you?” Was all Ed said.

“What? God no!” Roy exclaimed. “Ed, I know this is all a little weird, but I’m not embarrassed of you. I’m glad I chose to help you, and your brother.”

Ed didn’t say anything for a few minutes.

“For what it’s worth, I’m not embarrassed of you either…. I’m just not used to the attention.” He finally said.

“I get it.” Was all Roy said. They didn’t talk for the rest of the ride.

_____________________________________________________

A few weeks later, Ed and Roy were sitting together in the living room. Roy was grading some tests, while Ed read a book he had to read for class. Although living together did get easier over the past few weeks, Ed still felt uneasy at the uncertainty of the situation. He and Roy had fallen into a silent routine, where they woke up, went to school, only made occasional small talk, and went home. Ed knew that Roy was always watching him, and Roy clearly wanted to say something, but for some reason, he didn’t. Ed feared that when Roy finally did say something, it would be the news he was dreading. That he was going back into the foster system. He just hoped that they kept Al.

“Ed.” 

There it was. This was all too good to be true, anyway.

“Ed?”

“Yea?”

“Are you okay?” 

“I’m fine.”

Roy sighed dramatically, and slammed his laptop shut.

“Nope. We’re not doing this anymore.” Roy said, getting up and sitting next to Ed.

“Doing what?”

“We need to talk. I’ve tried leaving you be, waiting for you to come talk to me, but I can’t do it anymore.” Roy said. Ed bit his lip nervously.

“Talk about what.”

“About what’s bothering you!” Roy exclaimed. “I just want you to feel comfortable here.” He sighed. 

“For how long?” Ed mumbled. 

“What?”

“For how long?” Ed said louder. This conversation had to happen at some point.

“What do you mean, for how long?” Roy groaned. “You’re not giving me much to work with here, kid.”

“For how long am I gonna be here anyway?” Ed snapped. Roy’s face fell.

“Do you not like it here?” He asked quietly. Ed’s eyes widened and he shook his head quickly.

“No, that’s not what I meant.” He quickly said.    
“I meant, how long do you want me here.” He said weakly. Roy looked at him in disbelief.

“What? Wait.” Roy shook his head and laughed. “All this time, you’ve been worried that we were gonna kick you out?” 

Ed nodded slowly, not seeing what was so funny. Roy just started laughing again.

“Oh my god, Ed! I’m not just gonna kick you out. You’re stuck with us, whether you like it or not.” Roy laughed.

“Really?” 

“Yes, really! For a genius you sure can act stu-”

Ed grabbed Roy and hugged him as tightly as he could. After the initial shock, Roy hugged him back. Roy was still laughing, the bastard, and Ed might have been crying, but he didn’t care. So they stayed there, until Al came home from practice and joined, and until Riza came home from work and joined. 

___________________________________________________________

At some point in time, Al started to say mom and dad, instead of Roy and Riza. They didn’t seem to mind. Eventually, Ed started saying it too. He never imagined that he would feel comfortable enough to call his teacher dad, but then again, he never imagined that his teacher would adopt him either. 

After learning that Roy wasn’t ashamed of him, or going to put him back in the foster system, Ed didn’t mind all the whispering at school. In fact, he and Roy confirmed it. Once it became official, no one really cared to gossip about it. It just became the new normal. Sometimes Ed would spend lunch in Roy’s classroom, sometimes he would bring a friend. Once, Ed accidentally called him dad in front of everyone, which obviously got a lot of laughter, but Roy just grinned.

Life slowly became more normal. Al forced Roy to watch Harry Potter, and they all had an argument about which house they were in. Riza would drag the boys to the park on a sunny day, despite Ed’s claims that he was “allergic to the sun”. Ed and Roy tried to cook dinner and almost burned down the house. Al tried to teach Ed how to swim, even with two missing limbs. Riza and Al would bake cookies together, and Ed would eat them all, much to Roy’s dismay. Honestly, Ed couldn’t see himself living any other way. Except for maybe eating more cookies.


End file.
